


The Pen is Mightier

by Phynxlegion



Category: Warehouse 13
Genre: F/F
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2013-11-05
Updated: 2013-11-05
Packaged: 2017-12-31 14:18:00
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 7,145
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/1032669
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Phynxlegion/pseuds/Phynxlegion
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Myka and Claudia must receive an artifact from an Eastern European agent, and wind up enlisting the aid of Helena. Takes place during Season 2. Prequel to Return to the World's End.</p>
            </blockquote>





	The Pen is Mightier

**Chapter 1**

**Takes place immediately following “For the Team, Season 2”**

Striding into the vintage office of Artie Neilsen, Pete Lattimer tosses a baseball casually in the air passing the time in between assignments. Taking a seat, he spins around twice in the chair until the squawk of Artie’s computer stops him mid spin. As he wheels himself closer Artie shoos him away and reads. Picking up his Farnsworth, he opens it and calls. On the other end, he sees his beautiful agent Myka Bering looking down into the device on her end.

“I’m only a few minutes away with Claudia. You said we didn’t have to be in for another 15 minutes!”

Artie only nods. “I know, I know. That’s not why I’m calling. Have you two unpacked yet?”

Claudia takes the Farnsworth away from Myka and yells into it. “Oh come on! We just got in late last night!”

Artie nods understandingly. “I know, but something just came up, and Pete is still out of commission. Get that artifact here and head back out. I’ll have everything ready for you two when you get here.”

He shuts off the video-phone and starts printing out pages of documents and plane ticket receipts. Pete gathers the folder of papers together and hands them to Myka when she and Claudia return from putting away Godfrid’s Spoon. Artie turns from his chair and addresses the pair.

“The regents were asked to take an artifact into safe keeping from our eastern European counterparts. A lot of countries dislike the warehouse being in someone else’s country, and they see it as if it belongs to a particular country automatically. The Russian officer will make the exchange in Seattle, near their embassy. The specific item is to remain unknown, because if anyone catches a whiff of this item before the exchange occurs, it can unbalance things in the world. Every one of their Communist leaders had and used this item until Gorbachev. He made sure it went into his secret vault, until a year ago, when it was stolen. Our Agents there just tracked it down, and got special authorization to transfer it to our warehouse for safekeeping. So, take my bag, Claudia, and get there expeditiously! Please, with sugar on top. If we don’t secure this item, it can also cause a major international incident, unsettling the balance of power across the world. Do not speak of it, just look at the notes. DO NOT SPEAK about what the item is, or its appearance, just read and do not speak a single word of what it is, even in the car. I mean it! There are still artifacts out there which can key onto the spoken word and it can found that easily. Read my words, but NEVER say what you are getting or specifically where the meeting is.”

Artie has her come to his desk, where he shows her a picture of the item, along with the address. “Got it?”

Myka’s concerned expression tells of her understanding for the situation, and she nods before she takes her gear and leaves quickly with Claudia in tow.   

The 6 hours of flights and driving puts them on the waterfront of downtown Seattle. Claudia, anxious to talk, discovers the difficulty of not talking about something which no one can talk about. Rationalizing that its no different than before, she can’t believe it’s actually bugging her. Trying to concentrate on not talking of the artifact, she eventually blurts out about the next annoying thing on her mind.

“Why did Artie have you see what it was and where we are going, and not me?”

Myka ponders the question longer than she probably should have before responding.

“I imagine it’s because I’m considered the senior agent and all. And if only one of us knows what it is, we’re less likely to blurt it out in casual conversation. It’s a very common item per say in appearance, so we might blurt out ‘buckle’ when referring to it, when we aren’t supposed to talk about it at all. Ya’know?”

Claudia disliking the taste of logical reason and common sense, just tries to change the subject for the remainder of the ride, despite the gnawing sensation burning at her tongue.     

 

Spending 20 minutes finding parking, near the ferry port, they make their way up the hill towards the shops. Finding an elevator, Claudia smiles broadly seeing an iconic sign ahead: “PUBLIC MARKET.”

“Pikes Fish Market! This is so awesome! We’re meeting him here? Whoa! Starbucks is nearby, let’s get some quickly from the first Starbucks!”

Myka checks her watch and nods. “We have 25 minutes.”

Spending nearly twenty of those minutes in line, they rush to arrive in front of the fish market right on schedule and find a small crowd gathered to watch the fish-toss. Confused, Claudia scans the crowd and can’t distinguish exactly who they are supposed to meet. As she turns to Myka, she sees her donning a gold pin with a red ruby in the center. It seems to glow on its own, not a product of the sun’s glint or refraction of light. Like magic, Claudia turns back to the crowd to see a short raven-haired woman immediately eye the pin, smile subtly, and head towards them from across the opposite side of the market. No taller than Claudia, the young woman wears a pair of purple spectacles, and has her straight black hair out of her face and in control behind her ears. Claudia can’t help but notice her milk-white skin and lack of exposure to sunlight, but is sure she’s not an albino, and she probably never gets out into the sun. Keenly dressed in a lacey white blouse, black knee-length skirt and matching jacket, her black flat shoes compliment her ensemble. 

As they get closer, the roar of the fish crowd suddenly captures everyone’s attention as the fish goes soaring to a buyer nearby, causing a loud gasp and laughter. Myka returns her gaze onto the approaching courier and sees her stopped leaning on a table. Myka surges forward and reaches her as she collapses to the floor with a bunch of red roses clutched in her arms. As she catches the young woman’s head from cracking against the floor, Myka realizes she wasn’t holding flowers, but instead she was keeping her abdomen from spilling out onto the floor.

Trembling, she gasps her final words in a thick Ukrainian accent. “Forget me…Ivan Bok stole the artifact…go…”  

Claudia gapes helplessly at the dying woman, brutally disemboweled in public. Myka snaps her out of it by dragging her away towards a tall bald man running furiously towards the docks. Ordering a woman to call 911 while flashing her badge, Myka takes off with Claudia in tow.  With the man having a full minute’s head start, Myka knows he can easily lose them if he got lucky or had a getaway car ready. Banking on he was prepared as she was, she has Claudia cut him off if he turns south on Alaskan Way street, along the bay of Pugent Sound. As she reaches eh end of the street, she smiles inside, knowing that he can’t keep up her pace, and the sound of police cars approaching will keep him from turning right, or north on Alaskan Way. He turns his head left and right, and begins running towards the ferry dock. As she reaches the dock she screams seeing him being jetted away on a speed boat. Claudia reaches her and asks what to do next.

As Myka struggles with her options, a strong feminine voice behind them says:

“How about a little help?”

They turn to see their infamous ex-warehouse agent Helena Wells standing in the crowd wearing a long raincoat.

**  
**

**Chapter 2**

Frustrated, Myka can’t help but turn to H.G. Watching the boat get further away by the minute, she imagines getting the Coast Guard involved, as there is a base just a mile down the street. Yet she can’t dismiss the expert help standing right in front of her, whether authorized or not. With a loud sigh, she exclaims,

“What do you have in mind?”

Helena smiles subtly and leads them to her waiting car. Screeching northward, Helena deflects the stares and gaping jaws surrounding her. The only way to reach the opposite side of the sound was to go south, then north.

“You think he’s going to just run? He has to have an out strategy, and the boat is a rental. It had the owner’s name advertised on the back.”

Claudia nods and continues where HG left off.

“And that’s where we are heading. Genius! Um…how did you find us? If you don’t mind us asking, that is?”

Helena whips the car west out of the Battery Street Tunnel and leads them north while avoiding Claudia’s inquiries.

Dodging traffic and running numerous traffic lights with only inches to spare from being struck, Helena gets onto the Pacific Highway and continues her run north. Taking a left west towards the city of Edmonds, she accelerates in driving Claudia’s fingertips into the cushion of the back seat. Myka seizes the opportunity to grill their driver.

“Okay, I get that you want to help us recover an artifact, but why? Do you know what we are recovering or something?”

Helena just shakes her head. “I have…been keeping an eye out. And if you keep a sizeable amount of money in a bank and let it multiply over a hundred years with compounded interest…you have a bit of resources at your disposal.”

Myka bites her lower lip skeptically. “Keeping an eye out on whom?”

Helena dodges the question by bringing the car to a screeching halt as a helicopter lifts off from the street in front of them and flies north. The frustration in Myka’s voice makes Claudia cringe.

“JUST FREAKING GREAT! How in the hell are we supposed to follow them now! Do you have a helicopter up that sleeve of yours?”   

Helena shakes her head. “No, but I do have a way to track them, but you’ll have to trust me. Can you get us a helicopter? It’s not likely they are going too far, as they have to get the artifact out of the country fast, but everything is too complicated to have already arranged a flight out of country this afternoon back to Russia.”

Claudia opens up her laptop and nods in agreement.

“She’s dead on! That last flight for the day just left 15 minutes ago. The next one isn’t until 6:20 in the morning.”

Helena continues.

“It’s not likely that they would chance us reacquiring the artifact by taking a slow boat to China…so to speak.”

Claudia checks every possible way to get to Russia, and after a few minutes confirms her suspicions.

“There’s no way these guys are getting out of the country to their motherland tonight. So that gives us at least 16 hours to find and recover our stolen artifact…which only Myka knows exactly what it is.”

Helena raises an eyebrow towards the beautiful brunette next to her.

“You’re not sharing that information with us?”

Myka shakes her head no.

“And I won’t budge on that point. It was made crystal clear that for no reason can I reveal what the artifact is, despite the fact that the bad guys already know about it, and now possess it.”

Helena turns the car back towards the highway and in the general direction the helicopter flew.

“Well, we seem to be in an impasse, don’t we?”

Myka stares at her intently and tells her, “Looks like YOU need to trust ME, now.”

With a hint of frustration, Helena nods and extracts a small box from her coat pocket. Pulling over to the side of the road she sets it in Myka’s hand. The wooden box, old and painstakingly preserved, could barely be held in one hand. On the top of the box was a black dome, seemingly painted with and detracts from the aesthetics of the box.

Myka doesn’t move as Helena unbuckles her seatbelt and slowly opens the top to reveal a small sailing compass spinning sporadically. She gets closer and eases her lips to Myka’s ear.

“Empty your mind, and fill it with what you truly desire.”

The compass sins for a few more seconds and stops with the arm pointing to Myka’s immediate left.

Helena smiles.

“Fill your mind with only the artifact you seek. This item will find the thing which your heart desires most.”

Slowly the compass arm twitches away from Helena and points due north. Helena smiles at Myka.

“Now, just keep your mind on the artifact, and I’ll drive us right to it.”

Getting situated in her seat, she pulls back into traffic and follows Myka’s direction changes. After checking in with Artie, letting him know how handoff had flopped, they leave off the particulars of their driver.

 

After two hours of direction changes and fighting traffic, the famous skyline of Seattle is history and the waterside city of Everett. Tired from their trek, they push on and begin driving large circles around the city zeroing-in on their stolen artifact. The compass twitches sporadically as Myka’s attention wavers occasionally, but the directions it provides seems to deliver them at the entrance of a sleepy bed and breakfast called Bountiful Burrows. Driving down the path brings them to a quaint and charming set of cottages, each of which having a magnificent view of Puget Sound. Taken back everyone stares confused at the spectacle before them. Claudia is the first to state the obvious.

“Was I the only one who was expecting some skanky warehouse or motel?”

Myka can only blink repeatedly with her mouth hanging agape before replying. 

“No. I had had even imagined some high class hotel that was four or five figures a night or an obvious mob hangout, but not a sleepy bed and breakfast.”  
Helena reserves judgment.

“Perhaps we should just go in and see if we can get a room for the night. It’s obviously around here, so let’s just play like we’re on holiday or something?” 

Myka reluctantly nods.

**Chapter 3**

Making their way inside, a warm and inviting voice rings out.

“Welcome dears. Are you with the Donaldson party?”

The petit old lady, older than the voice suggested, comes around to the front of the house and gives them a warm and reassuring gesture to come further into the cottage home. Dressed in a flowery red gown and matching house shoes, she takes off a pair of oven mitts and picks up her registry book. All through ought the room, various rabbits and cute bunnies decorate every square inch. 

Myka leans forward scanning the room, but doesn’t see the artifact anywhere.

“No, actually. We were driving by and felt compelled to stop for the night.” She digs out the compass and carefully swings the top open to see the compass arm swing wildly for 10 seconds then point towards kitchen the old woman came from.

The woman smiles at the threesome and opens the book.

“Well you are blessed! We had a last minute cancellation due to a death in a couple’s wedding party, and we have 2 cottages available. We normally have wedding couples stay here. We are known all down the west coast to be the place to stay if you want to “get lucky” as you young folks say. We say it’s our specialty to make the romance happen here.”

Claudia whispers to Myka, “Why am I afraid I might have some nightmare with Peter Cottontail stalking me all night.”

Helena suppresses a grin and steps forward.

“Well we just loved the view here, and we’ll take what’s available.”

The old lady sets down the book, and offers the pen to Helena to fill out the registry.

“Like I said, my sister and I are the specialists in romance, so each cottage only has one bed. So who’s the lucky couple?”

Without thinking, and from the short time she’s worked at the warehouse, Claudia wisely throws her bid forth before anyone can make claim to the only extra room.

“I call the second cottage!”

The old woman smiles knowingly.

“I thought as much. I have an eye for this sort of thing.”

Almost in unison Myka and Helena spill out a stream of denials, which seem to glance off the old lady’s thick hide of knowledge. She smiles reassuringly and chides them into silence.

“Hey it’s okay, love is love here. We have you lesbian couples visit here at least once or twice a month, it’s all the same to us.”

Smiling broadly, Claudia fills in the second entry for her cottage and shuffles through the last few entries. Not seeing any unique names or addresses, she takes out her camera phone and silently snaps pictures of the pages going back 2 weeks. Perplexed, she can’t help but inquire.

“Is there anyone else who have checked in before us with a Russian or European accent?”

The woman seems taken back momentarily by the question.

“Oh dear no! I would have remembered that. The last couple which checked in was yesterday…the Wyatt’s, a lovely newlywed couple from California. Normally our rooms are booked months in advance, that’s why I said you were blessed to have been able to stay tonight. The next couple to check in isn’t due until this weekend. So the most you three can stay are three nights.” She ponders noticeably before continuing. “Uh…should there have been? A European couple, I mean?”

Claudia dodges the question by meekly shaking her head no.

“I thought one of the names looked familiar, that’s all. Thanks.”

 Myka casually strolls around the room watching the needle on the compass continue to point directly towards the kitchen area. Frustrated, she remembers the name on the mailbox at the gate, and turns towards the woman.

“Ms. Garrett. It is Ms. Garrett right? Do you have like a safe to store valuables for the guests?”

The woman confirms her name and smiles.

“Why yes we do! Though I haven’t had a need for it in ages, but if you want something stored while you stay here, I can lock it up for you. My grandson installed the behemoth decades ago, and I think I’ve only used it half a dozen times since.”

Myka notices she glanced several times towards the kitchen when she was talking about the safe, confirming the location.

“Not yet. If we have to stay more than one night, I think I will. Thank you.” 

Ms. Garrett turns to Myka and speaks to her in a quiet voice.

“You should really make time for romance, sweetie. You’ll never find it penciled in on any schedule book. Our rates are reasonable, and I’m giving you a discount rate. I would have two unfilled rooms if it weren’t for you three. So stay a few nights, and let the romance happen.”

Myka blushes four different shades of red. Before she can issue a fresh round of denials, Helena hooks her arm and leads her out to their cottage. As the three split to their separate cottages, Myka grabs Claudia’s arm and practically squeezes her arm into two.

“If you so much breathe a word of this to Pete or ANYONE else, I swear…”

Claudia is practically fighting from collapsing in laughter. Her constrained smirk, not so much.

“Hey! What happens in Vegas, stay s in Vegas.”

Fuming, Myka has little choice but to let her go and join Helena inside. Helena, toting an overnight bag, sets it on the queen-size bed. The cottage was no larger than a two room house with a magnificent bathroom and living room. At the back of the living room, a small bar refrigerator was stocked with a bottle of wine and 4 large bottles of water. 

After kicking their shoes off, Myka sits down onto the couch and calls Claudia on the Farnsworth.

Claudia’s repressed grin was getting worse.

“Okay, I checked the names on the registry and they all checked out. Everyone staying here now, other than ourselves of course has been here for the last four days. No one has any foreign connections or bank accounts to speak of, and definitely no known Russian connections. Oh! I just found out that there were 7 men murdered today who have Eastern European dissent. Five were local Russian mob enforcers, and two were here in this country with visitor visas. Get this: they were from Moscow. They had flown in yesterday and were scheduled to depart tomorrow. I bet these were our guys.”

Helena come up behind Myka and leans into view.

“How do you figure that? If they were after the artifact, how come it’s here and not with them?”

Claudia nods.

“Ah my astute lovebird!”

Myka’s clenched teeth stops Claudia from pursuing her joke.

“You see, the five were killed at a little Russian café in Seattle, and our two foreign guys were killed at a hotel a few miles away from here. You want to guess how those five were killed?”

Myka and Helena wait impatiently.

“Drumroll please…evisceration! Just like our contact was in the market, and this time no one saw or heard a thing. Oh, and Artie says he can’t find anything out about contact because she disappeared from the hospital she was sent to. The thing is, our two guys here were shot to death, but no one remembers hearing any gunfire either.”

Myka takes out the compass and see its still pointing directly at the main cottage.

“This doesn’t make any sense. The artifact is here, right? So how come it’s HERE, and not in some Russian mobster’s possession?”

Helena contemplates momentarily.

“Who’s to say it isn’t? What’s the story on our elderly B&B owner?”

Claudia, typing furiously, tries to keep up.

“I thought of that too, and they’re clean as a whistle…whatever that is supposed to mean. Ms. Garrett was employed as a House Matron for a number of years before retiring. She came out of retirement 15 years ago to head the business with her sister Francis, and they are ranked quite highly in the local economy. They are listed in many circles as the premiere business to model after, and they have taken the B&B business to a new level in the past 8 years. They’re attributed to the city winning the national best hotel and lodging award for the past 7. All the bed and breakfasts around here are part of the city’s B&B Advisory Council, which regulates and standardized all the B&Bs within the city.”

Myka nods her head.

“Something like a homeowner’s association?”

Claudia nods her head as well.

“Yah, it looks like if you want to have a B&B in the city, you have to abide by their rules. Crazy stuff.”

Myka is suddenly struck by exhaustion and can’t stop yawning.

“Alright Claudia, keep looking into this crazy HOA thing, and we’ll begin scouring the area for our artifact in the morning.”

Claudia nods simply. Before Myka closes the connection she throws out her last jab for the evening.

“Goodnight you two…don’t do anything I wouldn’t do.”

Before Myka can shoot out a rant, Claudia shuts her Farnsworth off, avoiding the verbal lashing waiting for her.

 

Helena goes to the bathroom and comes back in a red nightgown, to Myka’s surprise. Myka, taken by the beautiful sight, blinks rapidly and pulls away as her face turns a pinker shade.

Smiling, Helena stops in doorway.

“I have an extra nightgown if you want it?”

Almost immediately, Myka stammers out a fast response.

“NO! Uh...no thank you. I’ll be fine. I’ll just take the couch.”

After several awkward exchanges of taking the other’s place, Helena relinquishes the couch to Myka and she slips under the sheets of the bed.

 

Myka’s eyes gingerly flutter open. Light floods into the bedroom from the wide-open drapes. As she instinctively starts to curse the light, she’s overcome by a strong sense of complete restfulness filling her body, and notices the light doesn’t even bother her. For the first time in many months, she actually wakes completely rested and fulfilled. With the weight of her job and years of abuse, she feels it’s the first time in ages she’s ever woken fully rested and lacks the need for coffee to get energized to leave the bed. Pulling the covers over her bare shoulders, she lays in the bed relishing the feeling coursing through her body. As her senses slowly take in their surroundings, she notices the soft expensive sheets caressing every square inch of her skin, and a queer foreign taste lingers on her lips and in her mouth. Fear suddenly overtakes her as her hand wanders down her side and fails to find any of her clothes she went to sleep in. Her heart skips a beat as she feels another woman’s naked body casually nestle up close behind her and wrap a hand over her hip then curl around her waist. With her heart pounding madly, Myka slowly cranes her head around to see Helena fast asleep smiling. Like a bomb suddenly exploding in their room, Helena’s eyes shoot open in terror and she locks onto Myka’s equally terrified wide-eyed stare.

  

**Chapter 4**

Claudia awoke from the best sleep she had in years. After spending years searching for her brother, she felt the entire world was where it should be. Worse, if it weren’t for the fact she and Myka were on assignment, she’d have no reason to leave the warm silky sheets caressing skin. A strong feeling arousal permeates her soul, and she has to fight from acting on it. It’s with that thought that Claudia began to review her previous night. Meticulously, she walked backwards in her preparations for bed, and none of them involved stripping out of all her clothes and folding them neatly on the chair. Perplexed, she even remembers falling asleep partially clothed on top of the sheets, and never once did she remember getting into bed. To top off her predicament, she found it incredibly difficult to get motivated to go search for their missing artifact, and just lay around in bed. Frustrated both mentally and sexually, she slides out of bed and showers.

Just a little past ten in the morning, Claudia meanders to Myka’s cottage. Helena meets her at the door and lets her in. Claudia is immediately struck with tension filling the room. Mykka, sitting curled up on the couch in one corner of the room, barely acknowledges her arrival. Helena rather than taking a position on the same couch, takes the opposite love seat across the room. Taking a minute to watch the pair avoid eye contact, Claudia finally realizes what might have occurred.

“Did you two…”

She doesn’t have to finish her sentence to get her answer. Myka stammers out her confusion.

“We went to sleep in separate rooms, we didn’t say anything unusual before we went to sleep. I was fully clothed…”

Helena immediately interjects.

“I never once remember taking off my gown either, to say the least anything else. I thought it was just some peculiar dream…”

Angrily Myka yells at Claudia.

“Nothing happened! You hear me? Nothing happened at all! So let’s find this stupid artifact and get out of here.”

She takes out Helena’s compass and it immediately zeroes in onto Helena. She angrily shakes the compass until it returns to pointing towards Ms. Garrett’s cottage, due east.  With a fire burning inside of her, she stands and points towards Helena.

“Finish getting ready! We’re going to see this old lady about…about…about everything!”

Helena cringes and jumps up immediately, while Claudia keeps out of their way.

 

Half an hour later the trio find themselves on the door step of the owner’s cottage, confused and inviting. Its only then does Myka produce her credentials, and the nervous jittering of Ms. Garrett become heir apparent.

“I have never done anything wrong Agent Bering. We pride ourselves on making that loving feeling happen here at our cottages…it’s what we do.”

After several rounds of denial, Myka drops the sex question, and aggressively pursues the missing artifact, which makes her even more nervous. Leading the way, Myka lets the compass take her into the kitchen and into the rear pantry. Concealed behind a shelf of spices and baking ingredients, a large gun safe sits monolithically overbearing. Myka looks it over and motions to open it. Complying, she unlocks the safe and discovers another smaller safe built inside.

“It’s a fancy two-lock safe. My sister just put a package in there yesterday before you got here. I have one key, but she has her own. She’s in Portland for a Bed and Breakfast conference, and won’t be back until tomorrow morning.”

Claudia does a quick internet search and confirms it can’t be opened without both. Unable to hide her frustration, she nods, and demands the key from their house keeper.

“You tell your sister to get her…”

Claudia clears her throat loudly stopping Myka from saying adding anything more colorful.

“…get back right away.”

 Myka storms out of the pantry leaving Helena and Claudia to pick up the rear. The entire afternoon buzzed by with Myka and Helena speaking little. Helena offers to buy them dinner, but Myka can’t accept it. Eventually, Claudia convinces her otherwise and they find a quaint seafood restaurant not too far from the cottages. Myka spends half the night taking out the compass and verifying the artifact hasn’t moved, stifling the atmosphere. By evening’s end, they returned to the cottages and Myka refused to go inside with either Helena or Claudia, choosing to sleep in the car. Too tired to fight, the three part ways and the settle down in their respective locations for the night. Sitting in the front seat Myka hugs the pillow and nestles tightly against it.

 

Myka’s dreams are fraught with erotica and visions of passion. When she wakes she squeezes the pillow and inhales deeply, surprised on how comfortable she feels despite having slept in the car all night. Laying on her right side, she uses her left hand to slide up the pillow to scratch at her face, but it suddenly plunges between to smaller warm pillows. It’s then when her eyes shoot open and her face is buried against Helena’s bare back, and their legs are intertwined. As she jumps up to scream, shock paralyzes her as she sees a familiar mop of short red hair lying in Helena’s arms. Myka’s eyes shoot towards the chair at the foot of the bed and she counts three sets of folded clothes. Instead of embarrassment, anger fills her eyes.

 

Myka exits the shower to find Helena and Claudia sitting on opposite sides of the living room, too bewildered to speak. With a smirk, Myka chides her young protégé.

“Not so funny when it happens to you huh?”

 

**Chapter 5**

Struggling with the previous night’s events, Claudia runs through them systematically.

“I came by here to have H.G. look over some stuff that might be what we have going on at the cottages, she left me alone to lay down, and…oh my god! I fell asleep here at the couch reading about a brothel named Lulu White’s Saloon. Lulu had been a successful Madame in the 20’s, and it was said that no one ever left her establishment without a smile. It was the rabbits, you see, on the beds and everything. My headboard has a slight smell of smoke, and guess what happened to the Saloon? It caught fire in 1927, but most of the beds and furniture were salvaged. It says she had 15 rooms for guests, to ply their trade.”

Grabbing Helena’s attention she perks up to listen.

“Ms. Garrett has 6 cottages here. You mean there could be 9 more of these artifacts floating around here?”

Myka nods and drifts inwards before responding.

“It would explain why she’s so successful at doing what she does here. I mean, not that I approve of what we ALL have been through now, but it sure explains a lot. I wonder how many of those beds are floating around out here?”

Claudia surfs furiously.

“Fifteen. I found a sales receipt to Joan Garrett, her sister, for 15 bed head and foot boards sent via UPS from New Orleans to this cottage address…eight years ago.”

Sighing loudly, from frustration and anxiety, she pulls out H.G.’s compass and watches it spin wildly. Growling, she shakes it until it stops. Having moved from due east where Ms. Garrett’s cottage is situated, she shakes it once, but it keeps pointing at the new location. Confused she looks up to see Helena standing at the bar refilling her cup of tea, directly in line to where the compass is pointing. Clenching her teeth she empties her mind, and slowly the needle turns back towards the location of the safe. 

Myka can only try to shake off the turmoil boiling inside of her. The longer they have stayed, the memories of the previous night were sticking in her memory better than the first night’s. 

“Okay. Now that we all have fallen victim to these artifacts, I vote we stay somewhere else if we can’t get our pen.”

Almost in unison, everyone in the room agrees instantly, and Claudia suddenly stops and turns towards Myka.

“Get our what?”

Myka’s eyes pop open.

“I can’t believe I actually said it.”

Defeated, she sighs and continues.

“We need to wrap this up and get back to the warehouse today! I am not staying another night in this area.”

She turns and goes into the bedroom to fill in Artie in private on the Farnsworth.

Helena sits on the couch and lies back for a quick nap and Claudia excuses herself to check on Ms. Garrett. With her joking manner deflated from the previous night, she just exits solemnly, struck with momentary flashbacks of her last night in bed with her colleagues. Entering the small office cottage, Ms. Garrett apologetically appeases Claudia’s demands about her sister’s arrival time. With Ms. Garrett sitting next to her, she has her call and talk to her on speaker phone.

“Well, I’m just passing Lacey, that’s north of Olympia, and I should be there by around noon.”

With Myka’s frustration rubbing off on her, Claudia just nods her head.

“Fine, just get here. You have a lot to answer for.”

Sighing, she walks out, but is struck by the need to caffinate her body. Taking the car a few miles down the road, she returns after another half hour with three large cups of Starbucks.

As she returns, her Farnsworth squawks and she sees Artie staring at her annoyed.

“Where’s Myka?”

Claudia shrugs.

“I left her at the cottage. What’s the matter?”

“I talked to the Mrs. Fredrick and she said the regents aren’t worried about those new artifacts you found. Apparently those artifacts are in the registry, and aren’t a danger to anyone.”

Claudia grumbles under her breath: “That’s easy for you to say.”

Artie fires back, “What? You two have separate rooms right?”

Nodding her head, Claudia can only bite her tongue.

“Nothing! Yes, we are staying in two different cottages, and I’ll tell Myka. Anything else?”

Artie seems to take her answer at face value.

“No, just be safe and get your artifact back here right away.”

He breaks his link, and Claudia puts the Farnsworth away. Entering the cottage, she surprised to see Helena’s and Myka’s coffee cups sitting on the end tables. Perplexed she drifts further into the cottage and enters the bedroom without a second thought to find Myka and Helena’s clothes folded neatly on the chair and the duo passionately making love under the sheets. Turning around, she sets the cup tray down on the bar and returns to the bedroom. She tries a subtle clearing of her throat, but it doesn’t faze them. Next she tries to gently get their attention by saying their names, but subtleness has no effect either. Knowing if she doesn’t do something, Myka would never forgive her, and fearful to touch the bed while they are in the throes of passion might drag her into it making the twosome a threesome, she goes to the door and begins yelling and banging on the door. Fortunately for all of them, the racket makes the pair slow their enthusiastic loving and they seem to wake. Claudia turns around and leaves the room as the pair is faced with the embarrassing truth of what they had done, once again.

After they take separate showers, they wander back into the front room and sit quietly, scrutinizing the past day’s events, which were becoming clearer as time passed. Claudia tries to break the awkwardness of their predicament with humor, but it putters out almost instantly.

“These beds have some serious mojo huh? God! We can’t take naps in the same cottage…”

Myka arrives and fires back defensively.

“I WAS IN THE CAR! ASLEEP! I just don’t understand it. I just…I just want to get this done and never comeback this way ever again.”

Helena snaps out of her inner trek, to comment about their dilemma.

“I’ll never look at a bed the same way again.”

 

As Mrs. Joan Garrett walks into the office, she’s immediately faced with three tense and perplexed women staring at her. Trailing behind her a county sheriff shuffles in and flashes his chest, as if no one couldn’t see who he was. Myka immediately jumps up and closes by flashing her secret service badge.

“Ms. Joan Garrett? Would you please open the safe?. We believe you have stolen government property inside of it.”

The sheriff immediately steps forward and orders her to stop speaking.

“Listen girlie, this is my county, and you have no authority here. I’m the one who put that box in there, and you have no right to put your dirty paws on it.”

As the situation quickly escalates, a loud crack of thunder and a bright flash of lightning drops down from the ceiling and strikes the sheriff as he reaches for his gun. With all his armor and equipment on his belt, he drops hard to the floor unconscious. The old women sit clutching each other by the kitchen door.

As Myka and Claudia stare at each other in confusion, a feminine shape solidifies from the far corner of the room. No taller than Claudia, it slowly becomes apparent who she is. Wearing the same purple spectacles from the fish market, their foreign courier steps out holding a 12 inch glass rod wrapped with brass and wood. Dressed in an expensive Valentino black leather and lace gathered dress, black stockings and matching short boots, she seemed to be out of place in the rustic and contemporary surroundings of the cottage.

Claudia can’t stop from staring and blurting out the obvious.

“I thought you were dead?”

The woman only nods and replies in her thick Ukrainian accent.

“Da, if I only had a ruble for every time I heard that. Let’s get this over with, my flight leaves in a few hours, and traffic is a bitch here.”

She whips her black locks out of her face as she walks with the women to the back safe. After the second safe is opened, the contents become obvious. In a small innocuous beige box, no larger than a box of pencils, their artifact laid. The woman opens the box, verifies the contents, and exaggerates putting the box into Myka’s hand before speaking.

“I officially hand off the artifact to your country, Agent Bering. I pray no one in your country ever tries to use it like it was done in ours.”

Myka nods meekly.

“Thank you. That’s why we’re locking it away.”

With little fanfare, she pushes her way out of the pantry and leaves the cottage. Myka tucks the box into the top pocket of her jacket. With the FBI carting the sheriff away for the double murder of the foreign assassins, the small bed and breakfast slowly returns to its original sleepy exterior. After clearing their bill, the three depart leaving the old sisters to sort out how they will continue. As they clean the first cottage, Joan looks at her sister and asks bluntly:

“Why did you put the two of them into this cottage? You know this one will aggressively put people together. You can’t even have brothers or sisters together in this one. You should have put them in the one the spunky redhead was in.”

Her sister only shrugs.

“I don’t know, they just looked like they’d make a good couple.”

Sharing a good laugh, they finish up cleaning and head back to the office cottage to share some tea.

 

Arriving at the warehouse, Myka and Claudia enter and hand the box to Artie. Opening it up, Claudia sees a simple gold pen set in the wooden case. Artie scrutinizes the item and finally closes it. Claudia is dancing around to know its back story. With a heavy sigh, Artie shoos her back and explains.

“This pen was Stalin’s pen. He and every leader until Gorbachev used it with horrible consequences on the victim whose name was written using it. Our eastern counterparts were worried it might fall into the next leader’s hand, and asked us to put it into permanent storage. Good job you two. Any problems pop up?”

Myka and Claudia share a subtle glance and shake their heads no. Claudia replies for the both of them.

“Nothing out of the ordinary, considering we had to see a woman have her belly torn open and be stuck in artifact riddled cottages. Basically your usual weekend hunting artifacts, right”

Artie mulls over her words and nods his head.

“Got a point. Good job, nonetheless. This was an important recovery.”

Artie returns to his computer and the pair quietly leave for the day.

 

Myka sits on her bed staring at the ceiling, sorting the past week’s events. Images of Helena fill her mind, and everything they did together. As she falls asleep she struggles with her feelings and emotions Helena generates inside of her. As the quiet of night descends over the quaint bed and breakfast, the moonlight illuminates a chair in the far corner of the room.  Clearly outlined are Myka’s clothes folded neatly and her naked form sleeping under her sheets. At the breakfast table, the two sit sipping on their coffee unwilling to discuss how they found their clothes when they woke up.  
 

The End.    


End file.
